Promised Rainfall
by Aiko Isari
Summary: Post-series. Sequel to Pile on the Floor. As a portal opens to a new world, the darkness of yet another draws clouds into the sky. Even so, what follows the rain is always the sun.
1. Is This a Rabbit's Paw?

1\. Is This a Rabbit's Paw?

The novelty of the Digital World was probably only in the fact that he had never been here before. Hence why even days after arriving, Tagiru was still darting from one part of the castle to another like it was going to explode or break from his adventures and laughing every few minutes.

Not that Yuu could blame him. Shoutmon may not be the brightest Digimon, but he clearly knew an _incredible_ architect. This thing could probably withstand Bagramon's Interdimensional Storm without much more than a wheeze of pipes and food falling off of plates. The ceilings were almost absurd.

Still, he hoped Tagiru ran out of energy eventually. He didn't know how to convince Gumdramon to retrieve him from the tall towers. He himself would enjoy Tagiru clinging to it too much to do it himself.

"Tagiru, I'm going to the library!" he called to him from the end of the hallway.

"Okay!" He heard a loud splash.

Yuu hesitated. Should he really leave him unsupervised? Then he shrugged and walked on. The library was as good of a place as any to keep looking around. And he knew Tagiru's short attention span would eventually get him in there at least for a couple of minutes.

He scanned the shelves with deliberate care. There were more books in here than he knew Shoutmon had the patience to read, not to mention the weirdest filing system he had ever seen. Then again, Digimon probably thought humans didn't organize things at all.

Yuu sighed. "Guess it would help if I knew what I was looking for to begin with." He slid to a shelf and flicked over the book titles. Apparently Xros Loaders could translate DigiCode into kana and kanji. Who knew? Wisemon, or he had even upgraded them to do that. Someone needed to get him out of the castle.

Yuu selected a book and sat down on the floor. There were chairs, sure, but it would be easier for Tagiru to trip over him than have him actually look. He flipped to a page. "The scrambling of legendary tales..." Yuu tried not to laugh. This sounded like the beginning of a fantasy novel, like that one book _Inkheart_ or something. Who would have thought Digimon would have fiction beyond fairy tales and legends?

"Ah, you picked that one?"

Yuu jumped and looked up. An angel -literally, an angel- peered at him from over his small stack of books. They grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that. I'm Lucemon, the librarian. That book is one of my favorites."

Yuu looked back at the book. "Is this a true story?"

"Truth is relative in our world," Lucemon replied, putting books up above Yuu's head. "Well, it is in your world, but the truth can be rewritten here. It's a pretty normal phenomenon. Most don't remember it."

Yuu frowned. "How does it work?"

"Usually due to technological advancements and discoveries in your world, things unintentionally get rewritten here, because obsolete hardware is hard to retrieve data from. For example, in one iteration, this world lost evolution. It simply forgot, because humans had lost their urge to dream." Lucemon looked down at him, blue eyes bright with excitement. Or curiosity. It was hard to tell. "At that time, it was written that the first Xros War began then and there with the first fall of a great guardian angel of Homeostasis, Bagramon."

Yuu shivered, thinking of not only Bagramon, but the one who had sought to usurp him. Lucemon pretended not to notice, putting another book away.

"Some iterations say he won that battle and that the worlds only survived due to a reset. Some say he was shown the hope existing in this world, and sacrificed himself for the good of progress. Thus the truth is scrambled, you see. It wasn't recorded well." He dropped down and flicked the pages in Yuu's book. "It's the debate over that, and other such events, that makes people keep thinking of the legendary heroes mostly as myths. The excitement when Quartzmon was taken out devolved into conspiracy theories after a while." He laughed and floated away. "Be sure to let me know what you think of it, okay?"

Yuu barely nodded, watching the angel boy float off to other shelves. He let out a shaky laugh. That… didn't make any sense. The other Digimon had never mentioned earlier Xros Wars… but it'd make sense if they didn't know about it.

 _Find her._

Who was it they had to find?

Yuu almost shut the book, but stopped himself. If this could give any hints to finding where Taiki-san and Ryouma had ended up, he couldn't look away from it.

"Yuu!"

Or apparently he could.

Yuu tucked the book under his arm and managed a smile. "Hey, finally bored?"

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_ Hey guys, look what it is! It's the sequel to Pile! Said I'd get it out this year and I meant it. This is a different story, different feel, so it's starting slower. Phew! Lot to do today. Gotta keep going! This is going to be rated T until it needs to go to M, if it needs to. I think Pile would have been rated T if there had been a little less blood.

Challenges: Tale in Fragments, 30, easy list 1, prompt 'attempt', and Diversity Writing (Digimon) I53. Write in the young adult genre.


	2. For the Sake of a Memory

_For the prompt - push._

* * *

2\. For the Sake of a Memory

The two of them found Nene and Kiriha with swords in their hands, sparring across the courtyard with a dead-set intensity that was only limited by the nicks on their arms and knees. Tagiru watched them, wide-eyed. "Didn't know Nene-san could do that," he said, voice almost aghast.

Yuu chuckled a little. "Our dad wanted us to get some exercise that wasn't just running around the neighborhood. This was one of them. The one we liked best." Becuase they were a pair of violent little kids.

Tagiru regarded him from the side, and then he grinned. "Is that why you suck at kendo?"

"Kendo and Western swordsmanship have different methods," Yuu pointed out, cheeks reddening despite the smile on his face. "Not to mention the multiple schools of swordsmanship and all..."

"Too many for me to keep track of," Tagiru muttered to cut him off, watching them move. "She doesn't seem to have it down as much." Though it seemed natural in her hand.

"Well, no." Yuu smiled a bit, adjusting the book in his arms. "Nee-san prefers things that don't drag out like this. She deals in subterfuge and the like." He sighed. He was going to have to interrupt them, much as it looked like they had a rhythm going now. "Kiriha-san, Nee-san!"

They stopped mid-strike, which Tagiru had to admire. It was so damn fluid, and they put the death weapons away without accidentally hurting the other. He guessed Kiriha had figured out how to hold a sword from his dad or something, or maybe his mom. He didn't know the other guy very well, not enough to ask weird crap like that and he probably wouldn't ask that anyway.

Nene moved over to them first, letting Kiriha go over to the other side of the courtyard, where his Greymon was curled up in the sun. "What is it?" Her face kept a strangely stoic frown. He was too used to her smiling, Tagiru figured. But the warmth in the way she looked at her brother was unmistakable, raw even. "Find something interesting?"

"A bit." Yuu offered the book he had taken from the library. Tagiru itched to look at it, mostly due to the obsessive way the other had been holding it the whole way there. He wasn't sure he'd be able to read it, or even get very far in, but honestly, he had to do _something_ about all of this crap.

Even now, when he shut his eyes, he could still hear Yuu screaming in pain, still see all of that _blood_ dripping into the grass from his senior's spear wound.

Tagiru mentally imagined punching a wall until he felt his lungs open up. Then he watched them, as Kiriha went over. Yuu flipped pages, murmuring to them in a low voices. Everything in him screamed to go involve himself somehow, but that would break their concentration. He needed to find something else.

"Hey Tagiru." Gumdramon alighted onto his shoulders, which would have been heavier if he wasn't great and muscular. "Wanna spar?"

Tagiru stared at him. "All I can easily hit is your tail."

"And I can hit every part of you," Gumdramon deadpanned. "Learn how to dodge!"

Tagiru pretended to glare, and thus, the fight was on.

* * *

Yuu watched human and digimon out of the corner of his eye with a minute smile. Then he turned back to the other two. They weren't quite interested in the book itself, not yet. What fascinated -and disturbed- them more was the manipulation of history. Good thing he wasn't the only one.

"But that wouldn't affect us," Kiriha was saying, shaking his head. "We're human."

"But we've also been in the Digital World for extended periods of time." Nene sounded both thoughtful and frustrated. "We wouldn't know. And we could just as well not be as human as we used to be."

"Taiki, Akari, and Zenjirou would know better, I guess, provided we gave them a different account. If we can compare events, we can narrow down who we need to look for," Kiriha mused, grimacing and stretching his tense shoulders. "Unfortunately, that doesn't bring us any closer to Taiki."

"Not yet." Yuu tried to keep himself from sounding too hopeful. "But it might. If there were a lot of Zones in the Digital World, do we know if Shoutmon fused them all? Maybe he didn't, or if he did, the information might be around somewhere. We just need to put as many pieces together as we can." Yuu winced. "Before it's too late."

Not that they knew how long they had, now did they?


	3. The Melting Ice Caps

3\. The Melting Ice Caps

It was so close… the portal was only little farther away.

Her legs were too short to just hop, step, and jump her way there, but she was sure as hell gonna try. She had to make it, otherwise-

A very loud crash jolted her from her thoughts. The girl leaped to the ground, crouching as the second missile exploded meters ahead of her. Well, so long as they kept missing _that badly,_ she was going to make it!

Amano Kotone had to pray for her good luck to not run out for just a little bit more. She rushed forward, broken sneakers flapping, sweater about to fall off of her bloody back and-

All sound left her ears in one blow, followed by sight. Everything with white. Her feet stumbled and she fell, rolling and surrounded by pain.

When she came to, her body was bleeding afresh and she laid in the clearing. She couldn't feel her legs, or her arms. With all of the strength she had left in her body, Kotone pushed herself up with her hands. She almost sobbed with the effort, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. She had promised her sister after all. She would stop crying, until she saw her again. She had to apologize, for everything.

If only she had been a bit stronger. If only they could have made things right.

The others had done it without her, but now… now _they_ were trying to destroy it, the happy ending. But was it a happy ending without everyone there?

Would it be a happy ending without _her?_

Hah. She grinned. Of course it wouldn't.

Before the next volley of shots could reach her head, Kotone pushed forward with the last of her strength, and leaped into the portal.

She hoped her enemy was seething. It would serve them right.

* * *

"The Xros Code is a mysterious energy, produced in replacement of Digital Soul, due to a lack of forced evolution. Forced evolution in itself is not bad when brought about by the right sort of emotion and drive behind it, and so long as it is temporary, but it is dangerous when used for the wrong reasons like a weapon. The Xros Code is to make up for this, and can be used to..."

"Yuu," Tagiru groaned from the comfy armchair, graphic novel in hand. "Reading out loud again..."

"Sorry," Yuu muttered, looking up from the tome he had been going over for the past week. "It's really interesting though. Helps me think."

Tagiru gave him a look from across the floorspace. "I know, but at least read something that makes sense!" This stuff was making his head spin.

"I'm getting there." Yuu licked his thumb and turned the page, patient only due to years of experience. "The Xros Code is how we have the power to perform DigiXroses so it _is_ important."

"Did that weird knight guy go after you because of that?" Tagiru's voice turned that odd flinty way whenever he, or anyone, really, brought _him_ up now. Yuu had no clue why. It wasn't like Tagiru had been the one under his armored thumb. It wasn't like he wasn't going to be all right.

"Probably," he replied, deciding to end the train of thought before it set itself on fire. "I was the most vulnerable one anyway."

They both went quiet for a while. Then as Tagiru seemed ready to speak, there was a very loud boom. The nearby windows shuttered, prepared to break, and the air smelled of smoke.

Yuu heard Nene scream and bolted without a second thought, book left open on a page of code. Tagiru was right on his heels.


	4. Just What Are Your Rights?

4\. Just What Are Your Rights?

In hindsight, Nene wanted to scold herself for screaming like an uncultured heathen. Then again, a girl had fallen from the sky. She could be forgiven for losing her sensibilities for a minute or so. Thankfully, said little girl had been falling in Greymon's general direction and so MailBirdramon was able to catch her without too much damage. Not that it mattered, Cutemon had to rush to heal the young girl immediately due to the injuries they could see. Which were burns, bruises, bleeding, like she had just narrowly escaped a minefield.

The small hole that had opened for her had closed as seamlessly as it had appeared, leaving nothing behind. Wisemon was inspecting of course, and she couldn't blame him. Random portals appearing was always a bad sign.

Yuu's voice caused her to turn, and for Kiriha, finally, to let go of her shoulder. For whatever reason, his face was bright red as he did. Well, she would be concerned about that another time. Her head had started to throb longer she looked at the unconscious girl. The very sight of injuries made her almost literally see red for a moment or two. Then she looked at her brother and the pain seemed the intensify, spreading from her brain into her hands. There was a horrible wrongness the longer he looked.

"Nee-san?" he said, voice soft. "Are you okay?"

Nene jolted, thoughts and feelings and pain fading into something small and locked up in her heart. "Yes, I'm all right," she said quickly. "I just was surprised, that was all."

Yuu looked at her so knowingly and with a lot of fear and she smiled, going to report to Shoutmon even as Wisemon practically buzzed like an annoying fly.

She didn't look at her brother in an attempt to get these ugly, ugly thoughts out of her head. She couldn't hang onto it.

How could she sit there and think 'why does her brother exist' like that? Of course he was supposed to exist. Of course he was supposed to be here.

* * *

Akari followed Nene without thought, keeping quiet to not startle her. To not cause her to lock herself up like she often did. Akari tried not to laugh. She was a soon-to-be voice actress, after all. To put on faces was only natural. The Digital World had put the skill to good use.

Well, at least for one of them.

Akari cleared her throat. Nene turned and smiled.

"I'll be all right," she said before Akari could speak. "Just… a headache, that's all."

Akari shook her head. While a better response than she expected, it just deflected way, way too much. "It's more than that." She tried to smile and make it look convincing. "If I can tell when Taiki's not at his best, I can tell when something big is bothering you, I'd like to think."

Nene chuckled. "That's because Akari-kun is more perceptive than she gives herself credit for."

Akari flushed and almost missed Nene taking a few more steps. Then she bolted. "Don't distract me, Nene!"

"But it's ever so much fun," and she disappeared around the corner so fast it was unnatural, leaving the corridor empty but for her.

Akari's fingers closed around air and she sighed. Honestly, they were both fond of making her worry.

She went to chase after her. Two guesses where the older girl was going.


End file.
